LACQUER WORK. 361 



3. Tsuya-keshi (tsuya = lustre, kesu = to wash out, drive away), is 

 a dull black lacquer coating, obtained by painting on the ground- 

 work with R6-iro-urushi, and polishing after drying with R6-iro- 

 dzumi (coal of the Lagerstromia indica), then a coating of Se-shime- 

 urushi, and rubbing with soft paper. 



4. The R6-iro. This lustrous black lacquer is accomplished 

 very much as the preceding, only that at the end of the process it 

 is further treated with Suri-urushi (polishing lacquer). Polishing is 

 accomplished by three alternate rubbings of Se-shime-urushi and 

 powder of burnt hartshorn. The fingers and ball of the left hand 

 are used in rubbing instead of leather. 



^. Coloicred Lacquer Wares, zvith Marbled Surface. 



I. Tsugaru-nuri, Tsugaru lacquer (see Plate V. Fig a). This 

 variety takes its name from the district of Tsugaru (pronounced 

 Tsungaru), in the north of Hondo, opposite the island of Yezo, in 

 whose capital city, Hiro-saki, this method of lacquering is much 

 employed, and reaches its greatest technical perfection. The 

 peculiarity of Tsugaru-lacquer consists essentially in having four 

 or more colours, black, red, yellow, and green, proceeding from 

 R6-iro, cinnabar, orpiment, and Sei-shitsu lacquer mingled in several 

 motley combinations. Sometimes it is in regular stripes, some- 

 times with more or less irregular spots and indistinct figures, again 

 in an utterly indiscriminate mixture of spots and points, that these 

 colours appear. One of the colours is usually more prominent 

 than the others, and often one is entirely wanting. 



Tsugaru-nuri is not frequently seen, at least in European collec- 

 tions, as its manufacture demands much time, and its price is cor- 

 respondingly high. The best older specimens of it, and of Wakasa- 

 nuri (the following group), I saw at the Hague (Museum of 

 Curiosities), and in the Ethnographical Museum at Munich. 



Tsugaru-nuri is made by going over the groundwork after the 

 Naka-nuri-togi process, with a tough putty made of the white of 

 eggs or some kindred substance {e.g. Tofu and R6-iro-urushi), to 

 form an uneven surface, which is then painted with red, yellow and 

 green lacquer, succeeding each other in any desired order, followed 

 by a coat of transparent lacquer. The surface is then rubbed with 

 charcoal and water till the desired marble appearance is obtained. 

 Its character depends on the manner in which the putty is laid on, 

 whether evenly on the groundwork with the figures and furrows 

 pressed in, or transferred by a stippler to the ground coating, 

 making an uneven surface from first to last. It also evidently 

 depends on the order in which the several colours follow each 

 other, and finally on the amount of polishing off. When this is 

 finished, then follows the final work : first a coating of Se-shime 

 mixed with Nashi-ji, again rubbing with charcoal and then polishing 



